


Lost In Translation

by clockworksilence



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Fandom fluff, Fluff, Gay Sex, I Blame Tumblr, M/M, OT3, Oral Sex, Sex, and joe is a disaster in French, booker is a disaster bi, booker/joe/nicky - Freeform, i'ma do something funny, if i can't do smut, look - Freeform, they're idiots, with added blowjobs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 11:35:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29883987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clockworksilence/pseuds/clockworksilence
Summary: Whatever you do, don't ask your sleeping boyfriend how to say "I love you"...
Relationships: Booker | Sebastien le Livre/Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, OT3 - Relationship, booker/joe/nicky, joe x nicky x booker
Comments: 6
Kudos: 42





	Lost In Translation

If Joe had any flaws, Nicolo had often posited, one was that you could never tell how he would react to his own feelings. Generally, in anger, he was like a meteor: a quick flash, white hot, then over and forgotten. In love, he was a slow burn: methodical, careful, measured. It had taken them decades to finally confess the depths of their feelings for each other, after all.

The coming tsunami he had seen looming on the horizon for almost three months, however, was about to make land and Nicolo was thrilled with the development in Joe’s character.

They were in Vienna when Joe had finally made his decision. He couldn’t remember the exact date, but he remembered the warmth of the evenings and the smell of summer, hope and prosperity in the air of a Europe recovering from the first World War. Nico’s hair was longer then, his own much shorter, his beard almost entirely absent. They’d been in Austria for a few weeks, doing nothing but enjoy life away from the theatre of war.

Perhaps it was the time away from the distraction of battle that had given him a chance to assess how he felt towards Sebastien.

They’d been living and dying and fighting alongside each other the better part of a century and developed a deep friendship that existed outside of the bond they all shared due to their gift. Nico often argued that, romantic or not, the fact that they were all destined to find each other was proof of soulmates in one form or another.

But the romantic had won out. Though a recent evolution of the dynamic between all three of them, the decision to be intimate and loving was an easy one to make.

Falling in love with Sebastien, however, had proved to be something a little more difficult to reconcile. But battling against it was futile: he already was and there was no escaping it.

“Nico?” Joe had asked one night, lying in bed with him, arms wrapped protectively around his body as the silence of a city at rest filled the air of the abandoned, suburban apartment with it’s veil of peace.

“Yes?” Nicolo replied, mirroring Joe’s querying tone.

“I think… I mean, I know...”

“Joe…?”

Joe paused, sighing. “I’m in love with Sebastien.”

Nicolo smiled serenely at Joe, glad he was finally being pro-active about the whole thing.

“You take your time with these things, don’t you?” He said fondly, nestling into the crook of his neck.

“You don’t mind?” Joe asked, a little wary.

“Why should I mind?” Nicolo replied. They were both in as deep with Sebastien as they were with each other. Almost.

There was a silence for a moment.

“I _s_ hould tell him,” Joe decided.

“Yes. You should.” Nico wanted Joe to be happy but he also wanted the conversation to be over. But once Joe was passionate about someone, there was little to be done to stop him.

“How do you say it, though?” He wondered.

“How you say it to me,” Nico responded, half asleep and wishing Joe would do the same.

“In French,” Joe replied, ever the romantic. “How do you say “I love you” in French?”

“Does it need to be in French?” Nico mumbled.

“It feels right if it is.”

Nicolo grinned as a perfect opportunity for a wonderful joke presented itself.

It would serve Joe right for not picking up the language, Nico thought. And for keeping him awake.

It didn’t occur to him for one minute that Joe might have thought he was being serious.

***

It was a full 24 hours before Nicolo’s jape came to fruition.

The balcony of the Vienna safehouse was Sebastien's favoured haunt when they were in the city. Quiet, dark, with the best view of the Karlskirche and St. Stephen's cathedral, tonight illuminated by the cool, ethereal glow of the full moon, it was beautiful and haunting.

Joe hadn’t really meant to say it. But when he joined him on the balcony, leaving Andromache and Nico inside, sleeping soundly on a long-broken couch, the sight of him drove all caution from him.

He was leaning on the railings, the sleeves of the off-white, collarless shirt pushed up his forearms. The shirt itself was several buttons undone, revealing a peek of chest that Joe had taken great delight in kissing several times. The braces of his slacks slung over his broad shoulders, dark blonde hair falling almost artfully into his limpid blue eyes, Joe thought he’d never looked more beautiful.

“Sebastien?”

“Hmm?” He replied but didn’t turn.

Joe took a breath.

“ _Je veux m'étouffer sur ta bite._ ” He said, with as much sincerity as he could muster.

With a snort of shocked laughter, Sebastien’s usually considered and collected veneer seemed broken.

“Do you know what you just said?” Sebastien asked, cautiously.

“I think so,” Joe replied, feeling less and less certain by the second.

Sebastien paused for a moment and found himself giving Joe an almost appraising look, drifting over his lithe, rangy frame before smiling subtly and taking Joe by the hand.

“Come on then,” he’d said, leading him past their sleeping companions and into the bedroom.

It wasn’t quite the response Joe had been hoping for, but the night of passionate sex, taking turns to fuck each other, more than made up for it.

***

The second time he said it was just within earshot of Andromache, who promptly stifled her laughter before looking across to Nico who was struggling just as hard to keep from collapsing. Once again, Sebastien looked a little abashed but quietly took Joe by the hand and into one of the bedrooms nonetheless.

Once again, the sex was the last thing he was going to complain about: saying “I love you” to Nico often ended up in a similar manner. He just wanted to hear something back.

***

By the third go of things, Joe began to get a little antsy. Quietly whispering it during sex, attempting to forgo the possibility that was what caused it in the first place, didn’t work. Sebastien had simply moaned more loudly, replied “me first” and, putting Joe onto his back, kissed down his chest and stomach before expertly taking Joe’s cock into his mouth, teasing it with his tongue.

It wasn’t until after, when Joe lay beside him, silent and pensive, that Sebastien finally solved the puzzle for them both.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, propping himself up on an elbow, gazing into Joe’s face; a heartbreaking mix of confusion and sadness.

Joe exhaled.

“Nothing. It’s just...” He glanced across to Sebastien, wondering how best to proceed.

“Look, I don’t mind you not saying ‘I love you’ back when I say it to you but if you’re not ready to say it just yet, tell me, don’t just jump into bed with me and-”

“Whoa!” Sebastien said, bewildered, stemming the tirade. “When did you say you loved me?”

“Two nights ago, on the balcony. Then last night...”

Sebastien began laughing so hard, the entire bed shook. It wasn’t until he saw Joe’s face, contorted with annoyance that he stopped.

“You thought you were saying ‘I love you’?” Sebastien asked, still smiling.

“Well, yes!” Joe was defensive and it was entirely endearing. “Why? What does it mean?”

“It’s a coarse term for… Using your mouth.” He tried to be tactful.

He was met with a blank stare.

Sebastien sighed. “Literally: I want to choke on your cock.”

Horror, embarrassment, shame and anger cycled across Joe’s face within a matter of moments before he covered them all from view with his hands.

“Why didn’t you tell me?!” He groaned through his fingers.

Sebastien shrugged, still finding it hilarious. “I don’t know. If a beautiful man offers to suck your cock, would you turn him down?”

Joe still looked as though he was hoping the ground would open up right there in the bedroom and swallow him whole.

Sebastien continued more gently.

“You wanted to tell me you loved me?” He asked.

A curious, soft rose bloomed over Joe’s face. “I did. I do.”

Sebastien raised his eyebrows expectantly. “Well?”

Joe grinned, hesitating only a second before the words he had wanted to say spilled forth. “I love you.”

Sebastien smiled and leaned over Joe, kissing him fiercely.

“ _Je t’aime, aussi_.” He whispered, holding him close and kissing him again.

Joe smiled, kissing Sebastien back, feeling his tongue with his own almost hungrily before wrenching himself away and moving from the bed.

“Where are you going?” Sebastien was wary.

Joe pulled on his pants and nothing else before reaching for the sword left propped in the corner of the room.

“Nowhere,” he said, breezily. “Nico and I need to have a little chat…”

It had been centuries since Joe had gone after Nicky with his scimitar. It was nice they could relive old memories every once in a while.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this Tumblr post. Unfortunately. https://aliciiaspinnet.tumblr.com/post/118377595938


End file.
